Alfred Butts first developed Lexiko in 1931 based upon the frequency of letters on the front page of the New York Times. By 1940, a gameboard had been added and the name was changed to Criss Cross Words. The rules were simplified in 1948, and the name was changed to SCRABBLE. In 1952, the President of Macys discovered SCRABBLE, and its popularity has surged ever since. Over 100 million games have been sold worldwide, making it easily the worlds best selling word game.